A minimalistic variation of the Windows kernel, known as MinWin, is being developed for use in Windows 7. The MinWin development efforts are aimed towards componentizing the Windows kernel and reducing the dependencies with a view to carving out the minimal set of components required to build a self-contained kernel as well as reducing the disk footprint and memory usage. MinWin takes up about 25 MB on disk and has a working set (memory usage) of 40 MB. It lacks a graphical user interface and is interfaced using a full-screen command line interface. It includes the I/O and networking subsystems.

I remember when Windows 3.0 first came out all those years ago. After using it for a short while I decided that the startup file didn't deserve the name it was given. The file was originally called "win.com", which I renamed to "lose.com" within the first day of me using it. This renaming became a habit and I continued it right up to and including Win98. It wasn't until Win2K that I finally thought the name "lose" was not appropriate anymore. Ever since 2K, the ride has been pretty good for the most part. But now as Vista comes along I feel like going back to those "lose" thoughts. I have a significant loss of faith in MS because of the decisions made for Vista and I can't seem to shake them when people talk about Win7. It seems Win7 will be another backward step in OS development. More overbearing and patronising than ever before. I do hope I am wrong and that instead Win7 will be a positive improvement, but right now, sadly, it looks like it will be getting worse before it gets better in the Windows camp.

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